It is looking more and more apparent that Bill de Blasio
will be NYC’s next mayor-although we should always be aware of the potential
for the chaos of events to intercede. That being said, what should de Blasio do
about the development of Willets Point? We have some very good suggestions.
In the first place, the development at Willets Point was
intended to be one of Mayor Bloomberg’s signature legacy projects-the “first
green neighborhood,” and all that palaver. Instead, owing to the good work of
the team assembled by WPU, the original mega-deal was derailed and the current
Rosemary’s Baby was given birth. Instead of affordable housing, a living wage
and traffic relieving ramps, we have been give the city’s largest retail mall
built on parkland. The property taken under the threat of eminent domain is now
earmarked for a parking lot!
Put simply, Public Advocate de Blasio, this is not your
deal. In fact, when you voted to approve the original deal in 2008 you were
played by the Bloomberg administration. Since it isn’t your deal-and the
bastardized deal that has replaced the original involves turning over $200
million worth of city owned property to friends of the mayor-you should let the
city council know that a mayor de Blasio doesn’t approve of this kind of bait
and switch corporate welfare. You should publicly argue that a new council
leadership and a new mayor should be given the opportunity to craft a better
deal for the city-one that better respects parkland and the rights of property
owners and tenant businesses.
This was demonstrate real leadership-especially because we
know that it is really tempting to allow the old guard to push this through so
you can avoid the entanglements that the reconfigured deal certainly creates.
But this would be, in our view, the coward’s way out-and you have demonstrated
courage and a real energy for changing the way we do business in NYC.
Shelving a deal that was promoted by an illegal lobbying
scheme-and fraudulent environmental studies- and that ends up with a mall
replacing 2,000 units of affordable housing, should be an easy call for a
change administration. The current Willets West proposal is a bad deal for the
citizens of Queens and the tax payers of the entire city. If we are going to
use the condemnation process, then the end result should be something that
significantly advances the public interest-as this land give away certainly
does not.
So, Mayor de Blasio, send a signal to the city that there is
a new sheriff in town and things are going to be done different. We are not
going to unceremoniously shunt aside hard working small businesses to
aggrandize the interests of the 1%. Say No to Willets West and set the tone for
a different kind of politics.